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Jochen Becker
1979 and following
Between Kabul and Tehran
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"A Construction Worker from Oudlajan"
If Tehran, as Ali Madanipour states, is "founded on immigration",
then the migrants of Afghanistan play a special role in the city's
development. For not only did a large part of the Afghan immigrants
settle down in the capital, they also made a substantial contribution
to the material production of the city and its boom as labourers,
road construction workers or brick makers. For centuries, the neighbouring
countries of Iran and Afghanistan have been linked by migration.
Madanipour therefore places the text on the "Construction Worker
from Oudlajan" at the beginning of his monologue on "urban
lives", with which I would like this essay to end: "I
used to be a teacher in Kabul, Afghanistan, but had to run away
because of the civil war in my country. Here [in Tehran] I have
had to work as a construction worker. (...) Sometimes when I go
to the street corner, where we are picked up by the clients, we
get jeered by the Iranian workers who were more expensive and could
not find a job. (...) There are so many people from everywhere that
nobody bothers us about our documents. I don't wear my traditional
costumes so that I don't stand out in the street. If I don't get
a job for a day, I just wander around in the city centre, looking
at thousands of passers-by and at the street vendors, shops, and
places. I can get some rest in a mosque or go to one of the many
cinemas near by. (...) Despite all this, for me Tehran is an alien
place. (...) I know some friends who work in a neighbourhood on
the outskirts of the city, where many new buildings are being built.
They live on the site and if I am desperate I can go and stay with
them. (...) I wish to get married and start a family, but there
are no prospects. Most Afghanis who have come to Iran are men and
I don't know any local people. (1998: 147ff).
_________________________________________
Notes
- The numbering system according
to the Roman calendar reveals the editorial perspective of the
North. According to the Muslim calendar, the victory of the Iranian
revolution took place in Bahman, the eleventh month of the year
1357; the Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan in Dey, the tenth
month of the following year 1358.
- The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan - four
years after the U.S.A. was defeated in Vietnam - not only plunged
the occupied country but also the Soviet Union into a deep crisis.
The maintenance of more than 100,000 soldiers over more than nine
years proved to be a huge burden that increased the economic problems
of the Soviet Union enormously. At the same time, the U.S. administration
made use of the situation to "bleed white" the Soviet
Union in Afghanistan, and - in one of the largest CIA operations
in history - supported the "Freedom Fighters" (mujehideen)
built up by the Pakistani military in their guerilla war against
the Soviet troops. The United States additionally intervened in
the Iran-Iraq war that took place at the same time by siding with
the government of Saddam Hussein
- The motto "Fighting the Long War" was
issued by the American Secretary of Defence, Rumsfield, on the
occasion of the Munich Conference on Security Policy in 2005 (http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2006/tr20060201-12403.html).
- Among the commanding staff of the Afghan police
there are many older officers who already in the 1970s attended
advanced training courses at German police academies. The patrol
police - around 50,000 men and women - are today mainly trained
by U.S. security authorities.
- The formulation stems from the novel Kim by Rudyard
Kipling, the author of The Jungle Book.
- At the time, the British army lost more soldiers
than the Soviet Union later did during their Afghanistan campaign.
- The architect Ajmal Maiwandi, who was born in
Afghanistan, returned to his homeland during the reign of the
Taliban regime on a research trip and receive a permit to take
photos - which surprised him as well. A selection of his pictures
can be found in this volume.
- For example, the Soviet Union supported the
construction of the Salang Road and the All-Weather Tunnel between
Kabul and the cities located to the north, establishing a direct
traffic connection between the Soviet border and Kabul. They also
funded the construction of the road between Kabul and Herat and
the Technical University of Kabul. Moreover, they trained and
equipped the Afghan army. The Afghan government additionally received
the equivalent of 90 million euros in development aid for the
construction of the (military) airport Bagram - which is today
the central headquarters of the U.S. troops. The United States,
in turn, financed the construction of the road between Kabul and
Kandahar, as well as the architecturally impressive (military)
airport there, the dam and the electricity project in the Helmand
Valley and in Soribi, the road between Kabul and Jalalabad, as
well as the university and a hospital in Kabul.
- Cf. also the contributions of Helmut Dietrich
and Jochen Becker in this volume.
- For a long time, the specific oppression of women
by the Taliban was hardly taken note of in the West. Merely the
electronic chain letters from the "Revolutionary Association
of the Women in Afghanistan" (RAWA) gave information on the
terror of the Taliban and the budding resistance of women. It
was only during the preparations for war in 2001 that the liberation
of women in Afghanistan was addressed, something with which the
military attacks could be legitimized.
- The raw material for three quarters of the world's
heroin production stems from Afghanistan
- For the artistic work "The House of Osama
Bin Laden" published in this volume, Langlands & Bell
documented his last place of residence.
- Both the former King Sahir Shah and the American
Vice President Dick Cheney attended this meeting as guests.
- Including 100 U.S .soldiers and 500 members of
the Afghan security forces; the other victims were Afghan civilians.
- Cf. the contribution of Ajmal Maiwandi and Anthony
Fontenont in this volume.
- With the demand for a secularized middle class,
the establishment of a public infrastructure, the modernization
of the administration, the judicial system and schools, as well
as stepped-up, compulsory unveiling, military repression and the
fight against the nomads, the Shah imitated and radicalized Kemal
Atatürk's exemplary reform programme in neighbouring Turkey.
- Since 1935 the official name of the country is
no longer Persia but Iran.
- As late as in 1929, Persia imported 70
percent of its oil supplies from Russia, since foreign oil was
cheaper. In the 1970s, however, it was revealed that the Iranian
oil wells were 200 to 300 times more profitable than those in
Texas, for example, due to the high quality of the oil and the
much more unclomplicated oil production conditions (Jungfer 1979:
81).
- With the sumptuous 2,500-year celebration in
Persepolis reminiscent of Roman festivities - Masud Rajai's documentary
film Iran oder das Ende von 1001 Nacht (Iran or the End of the
1001 Nights) shows pictures of it - the Shah in October 1971 celebrated
his increasingly autistic regime. Only members of the military,
a number of clergymen and state officials were allowed to attend
the internationally-oriented parade.
Even in autumn of 1978 a film on this grandiose celebration was
screened at the Humboldt University in East-Berlin, with SED functionaries
from the Foreign Office of the GDR and the Iranian ambassador
as guests. After protesting at the event, Bahman Nirumand was
deported to West-Berlin. The GDR officially invited the Shah for
the end of December (Nirumand 1985: 33ff).
- Khomeini also spoke his messages to the Iranian
people on cassettes in Parisian exile in Neauphle-le-Château.
Millions of copies were distributed even in the most remote regions
of Iran. Twice a day, the Farsi programme of the BBC broadcast
one hour of news on the success of the insurgents and announced
the time and location of planned mass demonstrations. When Khomeini
returned to Iran, he held his first official speech on television.
- Cf. also the conversation with Bahman Nirumand
and Thomas Giefer in this volume.
- "Up until June [1978] there are so many
casualties to be mourned that there is a fortieth anniversary
of somebody's death each day", the authors Amirpur and Witzken
(2004: 69) describe the ritual of remembrance.
- Cf. the contribution of Nicolas Siepen in this
volume.
- The current Iranian president was a member of
the "Revolutionary Guards".
- To circumvent the ban on prostitution, there
are frequently so-called "temporary marriages" in present-day
Iran.
- The photos of Bahman Jalali in this book document
this war.
- The Iran-Contra-Deal uncovered in 1986 demonstrates
that the United States and Israel continued to supply weapons
and spare parts even after the revolution in order to finance
the "dirty war" against the Contras in socialist Nicaragua
with these secret arms sales.
- Cf. the contribution of Sandra Schäfer and
Madeleine Bernstorff in this volume.
- Since compulsory veiling was enforced, more girls
have been allowed to go to school. Yet there are still close to
two million children and youths who do not attend school because
they have to contribute to their families' income.
- Cf. on street and informal economy in Iran the
contribution of Asef Bayat in this volume.
- In 2004 the Federal Republic of Germany was Iran's
biggest supplier country with more than 12 percent of all imports.
- As opposed to the Europeanization of many cities
in the Global South, this opening was not forced, but a result
of the widespread fascination about Europe. Cf. on this topic
the contribution of Mehran Dashti in this volume.
- Urban planning in Tehran is a lengthy process.
For example, the construction of the large-scale settlement Ekbatan
which began in the 1970s has only been completed today, and the
plans for an underground made during the Shah era have merely
led to the construction and linking of two lines.
- The largest manufacturer of the Middle East,
Iran Khodro, produces around half a million cars a year and intends
to expand to the neighbouring states, to Africa and the former
Soviet republics with its "Third-World prices".
- Since in the wake of September 11, 2001, Western
states are increasingly denying citizens from Muslim countries
entry, Turkey, which usually does not demand a visa, counts as
a popular destination for family meetings between members in the
diaspora and the homeland.
- Karbaschi was soon attacked by the central government
as being too liberal, convicted of alleged misappropriation of
public funds and removed from office. Cf. the contribution by
Amir-Ebrahimi in this volume. One of the numerous temporary successors
of Karbaschi was today's Iranian president Mahmood Ahmadinejad.
- Persons who required more space and height than
provided for in the local development plan had to pay a fee into
the municipal cash-account.
- Cf. the contribution of Daria Grouhi in this
volume.
- For example, families quite naturally camp for
several days in the central park of Isfahan.
_____________________________
Literature
Amirpur, Katajun; Witzke, Reinhard
2004: Schauplatz Iran: Ein Report, Freiburg
Bürker, Gottfried 1979: Massenautonomie im
Iran, in: Der Iran, Autonomie, Nr. 1 (bzw. 5/79, Neue Folge), Materialien
gegen die Fabrikgesellschaft, Tübingen, S.4-24
Danesch, Mostafa 2006: Gutachten für das Verwaltungsgericht
Hamburg, Köln
Ghaed, Mohammad 2005: Privates Leben - öffentliches
Leben, in: Stadtbauwelt, Heft 36, Berlin, S.34-41
Iran-Report Juni 1978, in: Der Iran, Autonomie, Nr. 1 (bzw. 5/79,
Neue Folge), Materialien gegen die Fabrikgesellschaft, Tübingen,
S.8
July, Serge 1979: Der Schiiten-Sozialismus der Khomeinisten,
in: Der Iran, Autonomie, Nr. 1 (bzw. 5/79, Neue Folge), Materialien
gegen die Fabrikgesellschaft, Tübingen, S.89ff, (Translation
from Libération)
Jungfer, Eberhard 1979: Die Industrialisierung als
Programm der Despotie, in: Der Iran, Autonomie, Nr. 1 (bzw. 5/79,
Neue Folge), Materialien gegen die Fabrikgesellschaft, Tübingen,
S.72-88
Khomeini: Der islamische Staat, (Ost)Berlin, 1983
Madanipour, Ali 1998: Teheran. The Making of a Metropolis,
Chichester
Malzahn, Claus Christian 2005: Die Signatur des
Krieges, Berlin
Maiwandi, Ajmal; Fontenot, Anthony 2004: Waiting
for Kabul, in: Somma, Paola (Hg.), At War with the City, Gateshead,
S. 241-279
Nirumand, Bahman 1985: Iran - hinter den Gittern
verdorren die Blumen, Reinbek
Schetter, Conrad 2004: Kleine Geschichte Afghanistans,
München
Vanstiphout, Wouter 2005: Teherans "Lost Civilisation",
in: Stadtbauwelt, Heft 36, Berlin, S. 76-81
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